Готовый перевод Мы строим деревню / we are building ecovillage: введение

Introduction

I'm going to the village to get closer to the ground...

Boris Grebenshikov

I tried different ways to write about the eco-village. And everything I managed to write was featureless, in the third person. With a pretention to be wise, mentoring. But this is a type of text I can't produce, probably because I am not a professional in any area; the only area I'm more or less competent is my own life. So I decided to write about that. It will be more honest and sincere.

Right now I'm sitting in front of the furnace, through its open door I see trembling flames. On the stove, the kettle with tea in it is boiling. Sitting next to me is my lovely wife Natasha, holding in her hands our quietly grunting daughter, who is just over a month old. White covers everywhere outside, it's February; snow. Grey outlines of birches on the mountain slope. Grey, led sky. So, whatever. On a day like this I started writing about the process in which we participate of developing the ecological settlement in Altay. And participate actively, with full immersion. Because as of today, we're the only family that continuously resides here, far from civilization.

Why am I writing?

First of all, it's our story, which, perhaps, will be able to help us understand what's happening.

Second, this text can appear useful for somebody, hence I know, that a lot of people are thinking about moving to an eco-village, but don't dare to do it. This can be not so easy - leaving the more or less customary regular life in a flat, for an absolutely vague outlook of country life, about which you have no clue. So, the experience, described here for many may become an answer to a lot of questions that can arise regarding this subject.

Third, this text is for the future. In case our daughter will wonder about how did it come about, that her parents, the city dwellers, go to live in the Mountains, with no electricity and no warm toilet. She'll be able to read the book, and find all the answers, which by that time we'll have probably forgotten ourselves.

Forth, this is an unofficial history of our settlement, which sooner or later will become living and real.

This book is dedicated to the very first stage of organizing and setting up the ecological settlement. Thus, don't try to find any practical advice about how to build a house properly, how to lay out a kitchen garden, because we don't know all that ourselves yet. But, as of today we can share whatever we have: The experience of moving to virgin lands. An account of the real experience of how we began the settlement, including all the difficulties and mistakes that occurred. But to start I'm going to focus at our "philosophy", the way of thinking, which led us to this, possibly strange, experiment, as a result of which we, the city dwellers, found ourselves in the mountains of Altay.

So, how did it all begin?

Переведено на Нотабеноиде
http://notabenoid.org/book/45942/183462

Переводчики: vladvic, pakuleva, ivanovishe